Macedonian police used tear gas against those stuck at Idomeni, on the Greek-Macedonian border, on 10 April 2016. Amel Emric/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.
One of the most pressing questions in Europe when it comes to the current Mediterranean crisis is: ‘how many refugees and for how long?’ Before answering this question, it is perhaps worth asking whether or not the term ‘refugee’ is correct. How we name the world in which we live is deeply important. The current ‘Mediterranean crises’ show this with clarity.
The Mediterranean Sea is, by its own name, the sea that is placed in between lands. Since time immemorial, it has been the contact point of many different cultures and the liquid bridge that has allowed exchanges and trade between different peoples and cities on both shores, such as Carthage, Alexandria, Capua, Rome, Saguntum, Rhodes and Jerusalem. When the Roman Emperor Augustus founded the Roman Empire, he changed its name to Mare Nostrum (our sea).
